The Tale of 647
by Envay
Summary: 647 is just a Stormtrooper. Another face behind a mask. Another number in the giant calculation that is galactic war. Fighting for the empire relentlessly. Or is he? Rated M for later adult scenes and general violence.
1. Arrival

STARLOG

Location: G5-623, Kashyyyk (Sector A6)

Time: 17:43, 0700

Logger: Unit 647, Captain of 7th Battalion

Been driving in this goddamn tank for most of the week now. Planet's a fucking nightmare, way worse than the training programs. Not only is it seething hot, but also it seems … alive. Every single stop is like sitting on needles. The jungle already took 4 of our men, one of them being drake, 612, one of my old friends from Dantooine. Guy's always been a joker, no one believed him when he told us he smelt something funny in the backyard of our camp. Next thing we know, he's dead and buried, Vespoid gas ain't no joke. I ordered the whole platoon to put on gasmasks at every stop now.

We are slowly advancing through sector A3, en route for the bastion of Wookie rebels in the north. I proposed to the CMD that we just finish them with an orbital bombardment, official answer was that there were important artifacts in that thing that needed to be retrieved. Yea central command has it easy saying that, sitting comfortably in Maar. Well, CC dispatched 12 bataillons. Bloody 12 bataillons! No matter what CC says, this is a big one.

Command's original idea was to use AT-AT's, turned out they can't handle the swamps, lost 2 of them until they relented and let us use the A6's. They're old tech, but there's nothing more reliable than it, with the additional benefit that our techs actually know it unlike the big walkers.

Anyway, I digress from the topic. Target is about 2 days away, provided the jungle doesn't kill us first.

* * *

STARLOG II

Location: G5-623, Kashyyyk (Sector A3)

Time: 19:33, 1300

Logger: Unit 647, Captain of 7th Battalion

We made it to Sector A3, had some difficulties with three of the wheels being blown out by roots, and continuous attacks from some sort of flying animal which seems intent on picking out the energy packs out of our blasters. Ordered the smaller side turrets to open fire on them, took about a dozen of them out before they retreated. After that, we had an almost too perfect ride, not one incursion. The silence is even worse than the attacks.

Other battalions are reporting a heightened occurrence of interruptions by wookies and other fighters. They seem to be of little threat, but continue to slow our approach by setting up IED's and making breaks impossible. This is making the morale on board drop even lower than it already was. I hope we get to those temples fast or else I'm fearing for my officers.

CC's been awfully quiet too lately, normally there should be nonstop radio contact, but that's not been the case at all, most of it attributing to a dense electromagnetic storm in the lower atmosphere. This will also disrupt their eyes in orbit, means we are basically flying blind in this mission.

I hope this will end well.

* * *

STARLOG III

Location: G5-623, Kashyyyk (Sector A3)

Time: 25:63, 2100

Logger: Unit 647, Captain of 7th Battalion

Today we merged with the 19th and 23rd Battalions, continuing in a convoy, I don't actually know why we didn't do this from the beginning on, multiple vehicles are easier to defend. The CMD's also had a meeting, came to the conclusion that we should be at our target in less than 3 hours. Problem with that conclusion is of course that we have no idea where the others are. The original plan was full frontal assault, might not be possible with only 3 battalions.

Orders so far are:

Reach destination

Set up a siege perimeter

Set up a scout network

Cut off their supply lines

Establish connection with CC

Now most of those are easily achievable, the only thing that worries me is the last. There really isn't much we can do about these damn storms and radio's not the only thing that's blocked. Teleprompters, Holodevices, everything is getting blocked.

This is all for the moment, there will be another log when we arrive at our siege point.

* * *

STARLOG IV

Location: G5-623, Kashyyyk (Sector A3)

Time: 27:73, 2400

Logger: Unit 647, Captain of 7th Battalion

Destination reached. We are now positioned just out of a turbolaser's reach of the fortress/temple. I took out one of the speed bikes and used a fallen over tree for an assist to jump up. Saw the temple, it was a complex structure, seemingly made mostly out of wood, although the core structure appeared to be approximately pyramid shaped. Reported these findings to the CMD.

Morale's now going up a bit, facing the source of most of their complaints the men are motivated again. It honestly frightens me how bloodthirsty these normally civilized men can get. But of course we are fighting for a right and just cause, these rebels been terrorizing these lands for too long, time for someone to put an end to this. In the end, it's just a few wookies, can't be that hard to beat.

We also established connection to 6 more battalions, still no clue on the remaining three though. For the moment we have to count them as losses, every minute we don't attack is a minute wasted in the minds of CMD. So they scheduled our attack for tomorrow just before dawn, 0500 to be precise.

I am going to sleep now, tomorrow's gonna be exhausting enough already.


	2. First Contact

STARLOG V

Location: G5-623, Kashyyyk (Sector A3)

Time: 12:13, 0400

Logger: Unit 647, Captain of 7th Battalion

Haven't been able to sleep too much. Decided to go over the plan again just to make sure it's all logged and stuff.

So we decided to have a V-Formation assault on the main door, plan is to blow it up with 6 thermo charges, that's enough to blow out the door of the imperial palace at Coruscant, so it should by far be enough for this job. The 19th will lead the assault, considering it is a jetpack regiment, because of their higher mobility their job is to find vantage points and defensive positions. We are the second regiment on the right, we are the ones who will secure the charges until they blow up.

This means, as they are placed we must ensure that they are there for at least 1 minute or they can be destroyed by enemy fire. After one minute they reach critical mass and all's too late anyway. Only thing I'm worried about is our time to get out of the blast range, which is already tightly measured if we aren't under enemy fire.

I'm gonna check the charges again and go over my whole equipment again, then it should start already anyway.

* * *

The ramp was down and he ran down it together with his second in command, looking briefly over his shoulder to see his men follow him. As he looked forward again, his visor showed him a deceptively peaceful scene. The moon was setting behind what looked like a giant tree, and there were animal sounds all around them.

The sky looked like it was lit by electric fire, dancing about red, white, blue and every other color imaginable. As pretty as it looked, this was exactly what's been annoying them for the last few days, and electromagnetic laden storm.

The ground was alright soft to walk on, good to sprint too, a few too many roots, he needed to keep this in mind when retreating from the explosion, losing men by tripping over roots was not how he wanted to end this day. Looking slightly to his left he saw small figures with little turbines on their back, looking like eyes. Those were the famous jetpack regiments, a newly founded regiment. They were always bragging about how elite they were, now the time has come to prove their worth.

His visor showed him a remaining distance of about 500 metres to the next cover position, at least the spotting duties were carried out wonderfully. He quickened his pace, sliding behind a big fallen over tree, which was just enough to see comfortably over. Second in command slid right next to him and, slightly out of breath, asked "Okay I sighted a slightly less rooted path on the right there" he pointed over to a small gap between two huge trees. "Sorry Jack, can't go that way, I need full vision of the battlefield" His SIC nodded, got in cover, and tried to establish connection with the other two squads.

Meanwhile 647 observed the jetpack teams slowly advancing and marking important positions in the tactical overlay. Suddenly there was a bright red flash and one of the troopers fell out of the air, incinerating upon hitting the ground. A sniper must've hit his fuel reserve.

With this first move, the silence was suddenly broken, flashes of light danced all over the battlefield, red and green, in a constant stream to both sides. Seeing this, he jumped over the tree and started sprinting towards the door.


	3. Assault

A/N: Sorry for the HTML formatting, no idea how that one happened. Is fix nau.

* * *

Throwing a glance back he saw his regiment jumping over the tree behind him and a short flash of pride filled him at seeing his boys. As he ran, his visor kept updating with newest information, possible targets and a marking assist, for the big guns on the Juggs. He saw a red flash appear on the front of the building, second floor. He knew that he had at best about a second remaining, so he quickly decided to jump right. This turned out to be the right choice, as the ground left to him got torn up by the projectile hitting it. "Strange", he thought to himself, "Coulda sworn that was a blaster." Picking himself up from the ground, he resumed running, now with a little less room behind him.

His first goal was to reach a concrete chunk. That should provide enough cover for his snipers to safely operate. For some reason, the enemy now acknowledged them and they got a hail of bullets and lasers their way, most of them missing luckily, but he heard at least one heavy crunch that indicated a hit. He couldn't mind for that at the moment though, as he was still focused on reaching his goal.

Sliding behind cover, he saw his regiment regrouping. The medic in the group held one soldier up, whose leg got torn off by a magnetically propelled rifle and was bleeding profoundly. Knowing these wounds, that soldier wouldn't live to see the sunlight again. The two snipers already set up their rifles, at about a distance of 1 kilometre of the front wall of the fortress and sent their own searching fingers of light upon the building. Those sniper rifles were strong enough to take out an AT-TE at up to 1.5 kilometres, so they should be having a field day here.

Receiving the alright signal from the snipers and the rest of the squad, he mentally prepared himself for another round of sprinting. Breathe in, breathe out, 1-2-3 "GO!" He shouted into his com, and with the same breath lunged around the corner and started to run in a kind of zigzag manner, supposedly helping diverting fire upon himself.

Through the Intel of the scouts, he knew that there was another position, about 500 metres from here, where they would be in blaster range. As soon as that was given, they should be able to advance, under covering fire, to the gate and place the charges.

He was just trying to com with his SIC, when he was hit by a gigantic shock- and heatwave, propelled about 4 metres back. After about 3 flips, he landed harshly on a root, compressing his lungs and pushing all air out. He fell over and started gasping for air, barely getting any. About 30 seconds, he tried to get a grasp of the situation, sadly his whole electronics were fried by the heat. "Damn, that would've taken me out if it weren't for my armour." Turning around he saw and almost hellish scene, the fortress was now missing one of it's corners and debris was everywhere. Trying not to inhale the smoke, he turned around and took off his helmet, seeing as it was now useless and just a smoke catch.

* * *

STARLOG VI

Location: G5-623, Kashyyyk (Sector A3)

Time: 12:15, 0400

Logger: Unit 647, Captain of 7th Battalion

Another thing I forgot to mention on the last log was that the CMD ordered the Juggs' main blaster cannons, in this case I and III, be replaced by turret mounted laser cannons.

I personally oppose this change, as the extra firepower, and it is quite a considerable amount of extra firepower, would pose a risk to our troops. The heat that is generated by them is immense and I can't imagine how it would affect such an old structure.

Our goal is not to destroy it, but to retrieve the artefact, I cannot support this change, however I have to accept it.

The situation was problematic, because he didn't know if the orders were still the same, the fortress had a breach now anyway. Considering this possibility for a moment, 647 in the end decided against that plan, the damage was most likely dealt by the juggs which meant the debris was most likely extremely hot. Not an ideal place to lead an ambush into a fortress.

* * *

Throwing a quick shout at his SIC, he saw that he was now missing about 5 men in his squad, appropriate losses for an explosion of this magnitude. "I'm gonna kill the son of a bitch who ordered this!" He screamed enraged.

But there were things to be done first, killing sons of bitches would have to come later. Seeing as there was probably not enough resistance anymore, he decided to have a direct go at the gates, readying the two packets of explosives, which were mounted on his belt. "Alright, LET'S DO THIS!"


	4. Expectations

Running slightly ducked, he made way for the first amount of cover he could discover, a small chunk of still glowing debris. While he was running, he tried to also get some shots in on the rebels, who apparently were very fast in their recovery. When he slid into cover, followed by his whole squad, he exhaled sharply.

"Okay, everyone listen up!" He saw the heads of all members of his squad turn towards him. "This is not the ideal situation that we intended, so we need to make the best of it! We will still need to detonate the main gate, or else we will be annihilated trying to storm the breach." He looked around, getting many nods of agreement.

"We will need every last ounce of explosives we can get, so ready up for it. Also, everyone that still has long range capabilities better get on covering us. Everyone else, follow me, and keep low! Now, LET'S GO!"

With that, he ran out, trying to cover as much ground as possible, the ground still being ripped up by rouge shots and the immense heat that was still all over the battlefield. The good thing was, the gate was only about half a click away, on even ground, so they covered the distance quickly, getting into fire protection from the slightly protruding gateway. He readied his charges and planted them, hooking it all up together to one detonator. When all charges were set, they quickly returned to the previous cover spot.

647 looked over the chunk of concrete, yelling "DETONATE NOW!" The charges exploded with a magnificent blue fireball, sending the captain flying off backwards. When he recovered, he saw that the main gate had been ripped completely out of its foundation, the two wings now hanging inside.

"Okay, now we need to contact the others." He said, more to himself, while already trying to establish communications. He eventually reached the captain of the 23rd, who already had set the plans in motion to not only storm the building but also bombard its front with the Juggs, so as to divert sniper fire away from the ground troops.

647, having no objections to that plan, agreed on it. After the first volley of hits on the building, they were supposed to group up with the others at the gate, then proceed to storm it.

Problem only was, they had no idea what expected them when they finally got in there.

"Well then boys, what is our motto?" He asked, addressing his troops again. "MOVE FORWARD, NO MATTER THE COST!" The answer was shouted, sounding utterly convinced that they will live to execute that. "Then let's do precisely that!"

Suddenly, the ground shook with multiple explosions, all stemming from the front of the building. Leading by example yet again, he charged on towards the gate yet again, this time fully prepared for everything that might expect him inside.

After a short sprint he was leaning against the left corner of the gate, nodding towards the other side, where the 23rd and 15th was waiting. Holding three fingers up, he did a short countdown. 3 – 2 – 1 – GO!

They stormed into the building, weapons blazing, shooting at everything and anything. Only to realize there was nothing there. Absolutely nothing. Not even the slightest amount of movement anywhere.

"What the hell?" The captain of the 23rd muttered, speaking for all of them.

"Well, this is easier than expected, order the Juggs to stand down." 647 said, not really sounding convinced of this whole affair.

Upon a small plan discussion, they formed search groups of 5 soldiers each, looking for any rebels they could find. They first went up, only finding automated turrets and weapons, mostly demolished by the Jugg fire from before. Everything seemed like nobody was here for a really long time. They concluded that there was nothing to be found and returned to the entrance hall, being very confused.

"Did CC know of this?" "No way to find out with these storms." "What was the point of this?" Such voices were heard amongst the men, who went from confused to angry by now, seeing as they all lost people here, for apparently sieging down a deserted fortress.

That was when a blood curling scream sounded from downstairs.


	5. Secrets

"What the hell?"

* * *

STARLOG VII

Location: G5-623, Kashyyyk (Sector A3)

Time: 12:18, 0400

Logger: Unit 647, Captain of 7th Battalion

So, this artefact we are supposed to retrieve, I asked the other Captains and everyone, no one seemed to have even remotely an idea of what it's supposed to be.

But, if no one knows, this order must've come from very high up. Orders from very high up never make sense. And mostly end in suicide commandos.

Well, it's not my place to criticize my orders or CC. I just want that to be known.

I wonder what the artefact is. Considering how much manpower is used to rescue it, I'd wager it to be an important affair overall. We have been given precise orders on how to handle the artefact though, we aren't supposed to touch it, not even with gloves.

Actually, the precise orders are that we aren't supposed to go nearer than 10 feet towards it. No idea how that should work, we have to transport it somehow.

Oh well, time to get moving.

* * *

"Everyone, turn on your lights and follow me!" He ran towards the giant staircase, which seemed like a dark maw, consuming them all into the shadow.

Trying to shake these thoughts, he turned on the spotlights on his rifle and armor, turning around briefly to see his troops doing the same. Consoled by not being alone, he pushed onwards, noting that the stairs seemed to be in better condition the farther they went. Being distracted by this thought, he didn't see a weird kind of fog rising towards him, encasing him. When he looked up again, it was as if he was caught in a grey cell. He couldn't see anything more than an inch away. He tried not to panic, he decided to turn around and meet up with his squad again. That's when it hit him that he wasn't standing on ground anymore.

He tried to move, but he couldn't, his feet weren't touching anything. Now seriously panicking, he shot into the fog with his blaster, but to no avail. That's when the fog suddenly started moving rapidly, shifting all the while, allowing him to see glimpses of the outside. He saw that he was being transported, through seemingly random corridors, all jet black spare a few red light sources, which were far in between.

Now calming down a bit again, as he was pretty sure that the fog wouldn't kill him, he started thinking about what the hell was actually happening. He assumed that this fog was some sort of defense mechanism maybe, to lock up prisoners? The point was, he needed something to do to not go insane.

After an eternity in darkness, the fog suddenly vanished, spitting him into a chamber which was almost painfully illuminated in pure, bright, white light.

After his eyes adjusted, he saw something he had never seen before. There was a ball of what appeared to be rapidly shifting liquid in the middle of the room, suspended in midair. Getting curious, he moved towards it, morbidly fascinated by the beauty of this simple thing.

While walking, he suddenly heard a CLANG. Looking down, he saw the shattered helmet of a Stormtrooper. The lighting changed to a blood red.


	6. Desparation

The first thing he heard after this more than slightly concerning revelation, was a weird thumping noise that seemed to radiate outwards from the walls. On closer examination, he discovered the source of the sound: The _thing_ floating in midair was emitting a soft, rhythmic, pulsing lighting. These pulses reminded him strangely of heartbeats.

He felt a strange longing rising up in his chest, getting worse as he drew closer to the orb. The longing was paired with a feeling of dread all the while. The dread that was coming up felt like if you were standing on a cliff, overlooking a great drop. The voice in his head told him to come closer, to give in to the draw of the drop.

These feelings were getting ever stronger the closer he came, now being paired with an almost overwhelming desire to just run away, leave this place far behind and never return. All the while, the beating of the orb got faster and faster, the light it emitted more aggressive. It warped shapes now way faster, almost looking like a torrent of water was ripping through it.

He was now walking over bodies of other Stormtroopers, not being able to care as the draw grew now almost unbearable. It was like touching the orb was everything he ever desired, at the same time feeling as much fear as he never had in his whole life from the very thing he desired so much.

He now stood before it. It was beautiful, looking as if a combination of blood read diamonds were encased in red water, the diamonds not being exactly solid, but always shifting. Lifting up his left hand slowly, he extended his fingers, getting really close to the object.

He touched it.

The pain that followed was unlike anything he ever experienced before. It felt like he was simultaneously being quartered, burnt alive and decapitated. The pain surged through his entire body, not letting him time to breathe. The pain almost felt alive, torturing him in very special ways, letting him recover for a second, only to strike again, not letting him recover, and almost driving him to madness.

Then it stopped.

After a second, he noticed that he was lying on the ground, breathing heavily. Shaking his head, trying to get rid of the last tingles the pain left him with, he prodded himself up against the wall. "What the hell was that?" He asked himself, while feeling his body, looking for lost limbs. Lucky to find none missing, he tried assessing his surroundings, noting that the orb was completely _gone_!

Wondering where it went, he picked himself up, noticing that he was now further away from the center of the room than before, his blaster was lying about 2 meters right from him.

He decided that it was in his best interest to get the hell out of there, so he picked his blaster up and began looking for the exit, to his despair finding none. 647 ran around the room, trying to find some way of getting out of there. There was nothing. The walls were completely seamless, forming a perfect surface, without the smallest etching or marking that would signify an exit.

After a good 10 minutes of panicked searching, he decided that it was worthless and sunk against a wall, leaning his head into his palms. "I'm going to die here!" His mind screamed to him. He knew deep down, that there was no escape. He tried to hit the wall with his hands, he even shot at it with a blaster, all to no avail. Now being a little exhausted from all that action, he sat down and collected himself, closing his eyes and trying to get to a rational thought about his situation.

That's when he heard a voice talking to him, telling him to calm down and look through his mind. This startled him, because the voice that was talking to him wasn't his. He immediately ripped open his eyelids and looked frantically about the room, trying to see the person that talked to him.

There was no one there.

Now getting slightly curious, he closed his eyes again. This time, he listened deep to himself, trying to get to this voice again. And there it was, like a whisper, constantly shifting through his mind. It seemed to talk in multiple different languages at the same time, having a male and female voice at the same time.

"What are you?" 647 thought, getting increasingly curious. He listened for a whole while to the voices, getting no answer what so ever. He tried thinking of other ways to formulate the question, but to no avail. He was now getting frustrated, he tried being more forceful, applied a lot of mental pressure behind his questions. This had interesting consequences, the voices were now growing impatient, almost violent in their whispering, which sounded almost like hissing now.

Getting the hint, he instead started questioning for ways to get out of this trap, hoping that there would be a clear answer here, but it was also very difficult. Finally, the question "What do I need to do to set me free?" sparked a halfway understandable answer.

"Believe."


End file.
